But his years spent studying in America have not dissuaded him from the most doctrinaire beliefs of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has called for religious law, segregation of the sexes and scorns the influence of the West and Israel, experts say. "If you look at his public statements over time, he tends to say provocative things about the U.S. and Israel," says Shadi Hamid, an expert in Islamist political parties at the Brookings Doha Center. "Sometimes familiarity breeds contempt."
Morsi, 60, took office this week as president of Egypt, having defeated the former prime minister of the dictator Morsi helped overthrow, Hosni Mubarak. Though he campaigned for months, his speeches gave few specifics of his plans and his background as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood offers little evidence of how he may deal with the United States and its aims. The Brotherhood is clear on its goal of a global Muslim caliphate in which the Quran is the source of all law. Now that one of its own has attained a presidency, what that means for Egypt is unclear.
Khair Abaza, a former official in the liberal Egyptian Wafd party who is an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, says Morsi's recent statement that he will include liberals and Christians may show he is evolving in his political beliefs. "Morsi said we are a creature of peace and we want peace with everybody," Abaza said.
The son of a peasant farmer, Morsi was raised in an area north of Cairo called Sharqiya in the Nile Delta. He studied at Cairo University and earned a Ph.D. in engineering at USC in 1982. He taught at the University of North Ridge in California. After Morsi moved back to Egypt, he continued to work in education and ran for parliament in 2000 and served until 2005, heading the Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc. He joined an anti-Israel group, the Committee to Resist Zionism.
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